The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

consumer confidence

Say you’re faced with making a decision between multiple brands or change service providers. Your willingness to seek variety, or make a change — even if it requires additional effort — may be tied to how confident and empowered you feel at that moment. [More]

Hip hip, hooray: Americans seem pretty darn positive right about now, according to a new survey that says consumer confidence for last month was at the highest level in almost five years. The report pegs this feeling to improving conditions in the job market, as hiring in the summer months was stronger than predicted.

We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again — the economy gets a big boost when we consumers are out spending our hard-earned money on stuff. So when we hear that spending is up, the first reaction is “Yay!” But this latest uptick in spending seems to be mainly because gas is so gosh darn expensive, not because we’re making any more money at work. Blurgh. [More]

Stores are busy announcing holiday hirings, home values are rising and American are feeling pretty darn good about all of that. So good, in fact, that a new survey of consumers shows we’re the most confident we’ve been about the economy for seven months. [More]

Even though they haven’t been making any additional money for the past three months, consumer spending ticked up 0.6% in September. Are people spending more because they feel that the low interest rates they get from the bank make it less valuable to save? [More]

Well, after a quick, hi-energy burst of enthusiasm in the spring, we’re back in the doldrums. The consumer confidence index is down to 49.3, below its May level of 54.8. (A level of 90 would indicate a “solid” economy.) And June sales figures due out next week are expected to show a fairly dismal 6% decline since May.

The consumer confidence index plunged to 25 in Feb., down from 37.4 in Jan. Many economists only predicted it would fall to 35. The index is based on a monthly survey of 5,000 households, responding “positive”, “negative” or “neutral” to five questions about how they feel about certain economic conditions. A decline means people are going to be spending less. Here’s a more specific breakdown of how people responded to the specific questions:

Reuters says that consumer confidence has plunged to levels associated with the recessions of the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s.

The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers index of consumer sentiment dropped to 69.6, the lowest reading since February 1992, and below analysts’ median forecast for a preliminary reading of 76.3.